My son & I had a nice father and son bonding morning on Saturday May 4 as we threw on our Spider Man t-shirts and took a trip to the local comic book store for FREE COMIC BOOK DAY. Free Comic Book Day is a special event that takes place each year on the first Saturday in the month of May when comic book retailers give out issues to anyone who comes into their shops absolutely for FREE. This year there were 52 Free Comic Book Day issues to choose from with titles ranging from Superman to Sesame Street that would appeal to everyone from preschool children like my son and daughter to a 40 year old geeky dad like me.
A big part of the fun of the day was interacting with a wide range of people in line waiting for a chance to grab a bunch of free comic books. If you enjoy people watching this was the place to be! There was a very nice lady who stood in line next to us that told us the whole history of the X-Men characters while I tried not to stare out the HUGE butterfly tattoo inked across her cleavage that was very visible due to her very low cut blouse; a group of bikers clad in riding leather that looked like they could have been from the cast of the History Channel’s VIKINGS who of all things were discussing what they liked and didn’t like about that show; guys dressed up as storm troopers from the local 501st Garrison who everyone wanted to get a picture with; a group of kids wearing their karate uniforms and practicing their moves on the sidewalk after just getting out of their class from the studio that was next door to the comic store; and we can’t forget the friendly little girl in the Wonder Woman costume who came up to my little boy to tell him she loved his Spidey shirt and struck up a conversation with him about which tv show was better on the Disney Channel: Doc McStuffins or Sophia the First. We were having a blast just hanging out in line talking about super heroes and villains with people who were die hard comic book fans as well as parents who had never read a comic but brought their kids up to enjoy the promotion. My wife and daughter really missed out when they decided to go shopping rather than join us guys on our excursion.
The fun continued as we gawked at all the comics we had to choose from when we reached the front of the line. The comic store we were at allowed each person to take 10 issues…which is pretty generous as I’ve heard some retailers limit people to selecting 2 or 3 comics…and we had to go through to pick and choose from all the ones available. We grabbed Disney Fairies and StrawberryShortcake for my daughter. My son chose Batman& the Teen Titans, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Smurfs, and Teenage Mutant NinjaTurtles. I picked up for myself TheWalking Dead, Star Wars, Buck Rogers, Prince Valiant, and The Tick. We also picked up Mouse Guard, the SteamEngines of OZ, and World of Archie Digest for the whole family to enjoy together.
After grabbing a treasure trove of comics we stopped to get some Superman ice cream on the way home. Than we enjoyed a few hours of just sitting back relaxing and enjoying our haul of goodies. Free Comic Book Day has two goals, first to reward loyal customers with a fun event that will encourage their continued business and second, to entice new readers to enjoy reading comic books and get them to buy the publishers’ products in the future. They accomplished their goal when it came to our family! My kids can’t read yet, but they’ve been going through the artwork in their books over and over again and have been asking me to read the stories to them. I have a feeling they are going to be future customers! I am a regular consumer of Star Wars and The Walking Dead comics so they built up some additional brand loyalty with this customer who is going to keep buying these publications by providing me a nice Darth Vader story to read and an exclusive Tyreese comicfor my collection this year. Plus, I was very impressed with the preview of the new comic Steam Engines of OZ which had great artwork and a nicely written dramatic and suspenseful story, so Archana Comics most likely picked up a new customer through their FREE COMIC BOOK DAY issue. Steam Engines of OZ is set 100 years after Dorothy’s visit in the Wizard of Oz where the Tin Man rules the Emerald City and the “Wicked” Witch of the North is trying to save the land from his dictatorship with the story portrayed in the steam punk genre. My interest was peeked after reading the first issue of this new series.
If you haven’t enjoyed FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, I highly encourage you to check it out next year. For more information, visit www.freecomicbookday.com
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